I have always had problems sharing a Route Plan and/or Maps generated by Streets and Trips or, for that matter, Autoroute with my Navigator-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. This has led to the inevitable "are we there yet" and "what time to we get there" and "where is the next rest stop" interrogations. I have tried printing on paper the Driving Directions, Strip Maps, everything. Almost as soon as we get the car moving, pages were flying every which way and were completely randomized. I tried putting the pages in a loose-leaf book which helped a bit but that too inevitably wound up on the floor which then hid under the mat or otherwise created havoc. And even when it was in hand, it was either too dark to read or the font was too small to follow when the car went over a bump. Sheesh.

Then, NWMBO embraced twenty-first century technology and bought an IPad. That then became the device of choice for many, many things. Fortunately, one can load PDF files onto IPad. And since one can produce driving directions, maps, and strip maps from S&T as PDF files it finally struck me that might be the way to go. And it has been working pretty well. One of the great things is that the IPad does not have to be connected to either the internet or to the S&T computer/laptop/UMPC while en route.

The way to do this is, assuming one has software that will print to a PDF file (I use Nuance products PaperPort and Power PDF which both incorporate PDF Create), to select the PDF-creating option from the drop-down menu for anything that you want to "print." Since the IPad screen is not the same dimensions as a conventional paper size, I found that it was a good idea to create a custom paper size that approximates the IPad screen dimensions. If anyone is interested, I can go into more detail about that. In summary, I wanted to eliminate to the extent possible useless margins so it took a bit of trial-and-erroring.

Then, I go through the usual printing routine for printing strip maps and other maps as appropriate. I select the strip map option of a new page for each day of the route, but that is strictly a personal choice. So, the printing produces PDF files.

It is relatively simple to get these files onto the IPad using Apple's free-down ITunes application for Windows. All one has to do is drag the created PDF files into ITunes into the "Books" section, connect the IPad to the computer using the USB charging cable, and then "synch" the selected files from the ITunes "bookshelf" to the IPad which takes just seconds even for largish files. Now, the user can go to the Books application on the IPad there are the PDF files. Click on those to open as usual and you are off and running. Like anything else on a IPad, the user can scroll and zoom with the usual finger swipes and, of course, it is fully lit.

As an extra enhancement, I print-to-PDF interesting things from the internet such as restaurant listings, Michelin guides, Travelocity listings, and Wikipedia entries for destination towns or sights as separate PDF files. I "print" these on a custom 8.5"X300" page format so that one has fewer, but longer, pages which are easier to scroll down through rather than many pages of standard 8.5"x11" size. This also minimizes the web pages headers and footers which can take up a lot of redundant space. I also include a little flag on the map with the name of the file so that NWMBO knows the PDF file exists and what to look for in the IPad library.

This works pretty well for us and much better than anything else in the past and certainly better than nothing. It certainly extends the useful life of the MSFT mapping programs for us even if they are abandoned products from MSFT's point of view.

If more detail is required for how to do this, let me know and I can bore down more into the details of what I have found works for us.

Ken in Regina

That's a great tip! Shows what a little creative thinking can do.

My wife mostly prefers to play games with her iPad mini while I drive and is quite content to ask "Are we there yet?" occasionally. If she really wants to know how we are progressing she will sneak a peek at the Garmin Nuvi mounted on the dash when she thinks I won't notice. She mostly uses the "How much longer?" question just to bug me.

...ken...

SpadesFlush

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken in Regina

... She mostly uses the "How much longer?" question just to bug me.

...ken...

Do they do that??

Mine claims she cannot read the Viliv (NOT the reason I got it and continue with it) so peeking is not an issue.

Anyway, thanks for your appreciation although it feels a bit like giving breast stroke lessons in the Titanic swimming pool.